Shan Lou

Dr. Shan Lou is employed as a senior Research Follow working within the Surface Metrology Group (SMG) of Centre for Precision Technologies (CPT) and ERSRC Future Metrology Hub from 2013. He is currently carrying out research in the field of geometrical measurement and evaluation for precision engineering.

Shan received his BEng and MEng at Central South University (China) in 2002 and 2006 respectively. Then he started his professional career in dimensional metrology at Hexagon Metrology, a leading global company for metrology industry. He worked as a software developer for the company’s primary product, PC-DMIS and other softwares for portable measurement devices, e.g. Romer Arms, Leica Tracker.

In 2010, Shan moved to University of Huddersfield to pursue a PhD degree whilst working for Hexagon Metrology on a part-time basis. His project titled “Discrete Algorithms for Morphological Filters in Geometrical Metrology” was completed in May 2013 and led to the development of the novel and competent algorithms for morphological filtering on freeform surfaces, which have been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A and other leading journals. His paper “Morphological method for surface metrology and dimensional metrology based on the alpha shape” was selected as one of the Highlights of the journal “Measurement Science and Technology” for 2011-2012. He also won “Best Paper Award” of the 18th International Conference on Automation & Computing, 2012.

Shan is a committee Member of the British Standard Institution (BSI) TDW/4/4/1 (XCT), a participating member of ASTM Committee F42 Additive Manufacturing Technologies, a Chartered Engineer of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), a member of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

Shan was recently awarded an RCUK Catapult Researchers in Residence (RiR) Fellowship. Sponsored by the RiR fellowship, he is working with the Manufacture Technology Centre (MTC), one of the most important Catapult centres in the UK, to investigate and develop a set of bespoke surface topography measurement and characterisation methods for additive manufacturing (AM), with the aim of linking the manufacturing, functioning and metrology of additively manufactured products.

Shan is the peer reviewer for a number of engineering and scientific journals, such as Measurement Science and Technology, Measurement, Precision Engineering, Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Optical Express, Assembly Automation. He was also an organising committee members and a session chair of ASPE Summer Topic Meeting – Advancing Precision in Additive Manufacturing 2018, a session chair of the 20th International Conference on Automation and Computing 2014.

Currently, Shan is taking the teaching duties as a lecturer and tutorial tutor of NFE2105 Mathematics Year 1 and a supervisor of NHP2400 Final Year Project. He also contributed to the teaching of NPM4005 Foundation Mathematics and NFA2168 Mechanical Engineering and Science.

Outside the work Shan enjoys playing badminton and is the faithful fan of FC Internazionale Milano.

His research of interest is in precision geometrical metrology, including surface metrology in microscale and nanoscale and dimensional metrology in macroscale. Currently he focuses on the investigation and development of mathematical principles and algorithms involved with the measurement and evaluation of geometrical elements (such as surface texture, topography and form) for state-of-the-art high-precision products within the high-added value manufacture, especially components with freeform surface and structured surface, e.g. modern complex optic elements, bio-system products, turbine blade and gear tooth. The aim is to build a toolbox for the analysis, evaluation and characterisation of geometrical elements using fast, stable and reliable computational algorithms.

Recently he has initialised the exploration of the surface characterisation for additively manufactured components and X-ray computed tomography (XCT) metrology, taking the collaboration of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC).

Particular Areas of Research

• Metrology for additive manufacturing
•  X-ray computed tomography metrology
•  Machine learning for high value-added manufacturing
•  Stable, robust, and fast algorithms for computational geometry
•  Mathematical fundamentals for complex surface characterisation

Current Projects

• Measurement and characterisation of additively manufactured surface texture, EPSRC(EP/S000453/1), 01/2019-12/2021, PI
• RCUK Catapult Researchers in Res. (HVM MTC)-Surface measurement methods for manufacturing, functioning & metrology of additively manufactured products, EPSRC(EP/R513520/1), 04/2018-03/2022, PI

Click Here to see all postgraduate research opportunities with Dr Shan Lou